Next week's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Nigeria is a make or break moment for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the initiative designed by Africans to modernize Africa's governments and economies. Zimbabwe's ongoing economic decline under the misrule of President Robert Mugabe has raised doubts about NEPAD's key innovation, its self-monitoring instrument, the African Peer Review Mechanism. For, if Mugabe can be let off the hook, will NEPAD's peer review process ever work?
The question is a legitimate one, because when African initiatives fail, they usually fail because of a lack of political will to follow through on commitments and declarations. The stark inability of Africa's leaders to constructively criticize their peers contributes mightily to this.
One cause often proposed for this damaging phenomenon is the emphasis that many African cultures place on mutual respect. But mutual respect does not preclude telling people the truth. Africa's great hope is that its "new generation" leaders--most prominently President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who helped spearhead NEPAD's peer review process in the first place--acknowledge this fact.
Next week's Commonwealth heads of government summit in Nigeria is a make or break moment for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the initiative designed by Africans to modernize Africa's governments and economies. Zimbabwe's ongoing economic decline under the misrule of President Robert Mugabe has raised doubts about NEPAD's key innovation, its self-monitoring instrument, the African Peer Review Mechanism. For, if Mugabe can be let off the hook, will NEPAD's peer review process ever work?
The question is a legitimate one, because when African initiatives fail, they usually fail because of a lack of political will to follow through on commitments and declarations. The stark inability of Africa's leaders to constructively criticize their peers contributes mightily to this.
One cause often proposed for this damaging phenomenon is the emphasis that many African cultures place on mutual respect. But mutual respect does not preclude telling people the truth. Africa's great hope is that its "new generation" leaders--most prominently President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who helped spearhead NEPAD's peer review process in the first place--acknowledge this fact.